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<A NAME="Top"><H1><A REV=MADE HREF="http://www.lispworks.com/"><IMG WIDTH=80 HEIGHT=65 ALT="[LISPWORKS]" SRC="../Graphics/LWSmall.gif" ALIGN=Bottom></A><A REL=TOP HREF="../Front/index.htm"><IMG WIDTH=237 HEIGHT=65 ALT="[Common Lisp HyperSpec (TM)]" SRC="../Graphics/CLHS_Sm.gif" ALIGN=Bottom></A> <A REL=PREV HREF="../Front/StartPts.htm"><IMG WIDTH=40 HEIGHT=40 ALT="[Previous]" SRC="../Graphics/Prev.gif" ALIGN=Bottom></A><A REL=UP HREF="../Front/index.htm"><IMG WIDTH=40 HEIGHT=40 ALT="[Up]" SRC="../Graphics/Up.gif" ALIGN=Bottom></A><A REL=NEXT HREF="../Front/StartPts.htm"><IMG WIDTH=40 HEIGHT=40 ALT="[Next]" SRC="../Graphics/Next.gif" ALIGN=Bottom></A></H1></A>

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<H2>About the Common Lisp HyperSpec (TM)</H2>

This page contains the following kinds of information:

<UL>
<LI><A REL=META HREF="#IconKey"><B>Icon Key</B></A>
<LI><A REL=META HREF="#Abstract"><B>Abstract</B></A>
<LI><A REL=META HREF="#Authorship"><B>Authorship Information</B></A>
<LI><A REL=COPYRIGHT HREF="#Legal"><B>Important Legal Notices</B></A>
<LI><A REL=META HREF="#Trivia"><B>Trivia</B></A>
<LI><A REL=META HREF="#Bugs"><B>Bug Reports</B></A>
</UL>

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<A NAME="IconKey"><H2>Icon Key</H2></A>

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<A NAME="Abstract"><H2>Abstract</H2></A>

Lisp is a family of languages with a long history.
Early key ideas in Lisp were developed by 
<A HREF="http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/">John McCarthy</A>
in 1956.  
Many important dialects, languages and embedded systems 
have emerged from this work.<P>

In 1981, representatives of several major dialects began to pool their
efforts to design 
<A REL=TOP HREF="../Front/index.htm">Common Lisp</A>,
an `industrial strength' dialect of
Lisp that would provide stability for commercial applications.<P>

The initial design of Common Lisp was well received, and in 1986 
<A HREF="http://www.x3.org/tc_home/x3j13.htm">X3J13</A>
was formed to transform this work into a formal standard.
The resulting design, 
<A REL=CITATION HREF="http://www.x3.org/tc_home/tc_sd4/x3j13sd4.html"
>X3.226-1994</A>,
is a standard for Common Lisp--<IT>not</IT> for the entire Lisp family.<P>

The Common Lisp standard improves on earlier Common Lisp
work by 
<A HREF="../Front/X3J13Iss.htm">
placing much greater emphasis on portability,
clarifying many aspects of compilation semantics</A>,
and adding several major pieces of
new functionality: 
<A HREF="../Body/07_.htm">an object-oriented programming system</A>,
<A HREF="../Body/09_.htm">a condition handling system</A>,
<A HREF="../Body/06_a.htm">an improved iteration facility</A>,
and 
<A HREF="../Body/13_.htm">better support for large character sets</A>.<P>

<HR>

<A NAME="Authorship"><H2>Authorship Information</H2></A>

The <A REL=TOP HREF="../Front/index.htm">Common Lisp HyperSpec</A>
is <I>not</I> the ANSI Common Lisp standard, but is based on that standard 
(with <A HREF="#Acknowledgments">permission</A> from 
<A HREF="http://www.ansi.org/">ANSI</A> and 
<A HREF="http://www.x3.org/">X3</A>).<P>

<B>As an official reference to the Common Lisp language,
<A HREF="#Ordering">hardcopy documentation</A> of 
<A REL=CITATION HREF="http://www.x3.org/tc_home/tc_sd4/x3j13sd4.html">ANSI Common Lisp,
(American National Standard X3.226)</A>
from <A HREF="http://www.ansi.org/">ANSI</A>
is always definitive.</B><P>

The hypertext markup for this document
was created by 
<A REV=MADE HREF="mailto:kmp@lispworks.com">Kent Pitman</A>,
with the aid of a <A HREF="#Caveats">custom program</A> written in 
ANSI Common Lisp and created specifically for this task.

Funding for the markup task was provided by 
and <A REL=COPYRIGHT HREF="#Copyright">copyright of the result</A> is owned by
<A REV=MADE HREF="http://www.lispworks.com/">LispWorks Ltd.</A></P>

Some <A REL=META HREF="../Front/X3J13Iss.htm">additional design
documents</A> have been included in <A HREF="#Caveats">marked up</A> form and
cross-referenced which are <I>not</I> part of the standard but may be useful
in understanding it.  Plaintext versions of these documents, which
offer a useful historical perspective, are available to anyone by
anonymous public FTP from <A
HREF="ftp://parcftp.xerox.com/pub/cl/cleanup/"><TT>ftp://parcftp.xerox.com/pub/cl/cleanup/</TT></A>.<P>

The <A HREF="http://java.sun.com/">Java</A> applet used in the
<A HREF="../Front/X_Symbol.htm">Symbol Index</A> 
(visible only in some browsers)
was written by Evan Williams.
Its <A REL=COPYRIGHT HREF="#Copyright">copyright</A> is owned by
<A REV=MADE HREF="http://www.lispworks.com/">LispWorks Ltd.</A></P>

<HR>

<A NAME="Legal"><H2>Important Legal Notices</H2></A>

<A NAME="Copyright"><H3>Copyright and Conditions of Use</H3></A>

Copyright 1996-2005, LispWorks Ltd.  All Rights Reserved.<P>

The <A HREF="http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/MarkUp.htm-spec/">HTML</A>
hypertext markup that implements the hypertext features of these 
World Wide Web pages of the Common Lisp specification, collectively the 
<A REL=TOP HREF="../Front/index.htm">Common Lisp HyperSpec</A>,
is the property of 
<A REV=MADE HREF="http://www.lispworks.com/">LispWorks Ltd.</A><P>

Distribution of the <A REL=TOP HREF="../Front/index.htm">Common Lisp HyperSpec</A> as a hypertext document on
the Internet does not constitute consent to any use of the underlying
hypertext markup for redistribution of any kind, commercial or
otherwise, either via the Internet or using some other form of
distribution, in hypertext or otherwise.<P>

Permission to copy, distribute, display, and transmit the 
<A REL=TOP HREF="../Front/index.htm">Common Lisp HyperSpec</A>
is granted provided that 
copies are not made or distributed or displayed or transmitted for direct
commercial advantage, that notice is
given that copying, distribution, display, and/or transmission is by
permission of <A REV=MADE HREF="http://www.lispworks.com/">LispWorks Ltd.</A>,
and that any copy made is COMPLETE and UNMODIFIED. IN PARTICULAR,
the material that
MUST appear in the copy includes:
<OL>
<LI>this copyright notice and its date;
<LI>the main index page, 
    <A REL=TOP HREF="../Front/index.htm"><TT>../Front/index.htm</TT></A>;
<LI>all HTML pages to which the main index page links using relative links;
<LI>all graphical (GIF) images to which it links using relative links,
    such as the LispWorks logo that appears on each page; and
<LI>all hypertext links, relative or absolute, such as the link
to <A REV=MADE HREF="http://www.lispworks.com/"><TT>http://www.lispworks.com/</TT></A>
that appears on each page.
</OL>
Permissions related to performance and to creation of derivative works
are expressly NOT granted.<P>

Permission to make partial copies is expressly NOT granted, EXCEPT that 
limited permission is granted
to transmit and
display a partial copy the 
<A REL=TOP HREF="../Front/index.htm">Common Lisp HyperSpec</A>
for the ordinary purpose
of direct viewing by a human
being in the usual manner that hypertext browsers permit the viewing of
such a complete document, provided
that no recopying, redistribution, redisplay, or retransmission is made of
any such partial copy.<P>

Permission to make modified copies is expressly NOT granted.<P>

Permission to add or replace any links or any graphical images to any of
these pages is expressly NOT
granted.<P>

Permission to use any of the included graphical (GIF) images in any
document other than the
<A REL=TOP HREF="../Front/index.htm">Common Lisp HyperSpec</A>
is expressly NOT granted.<P>

<A NAME="Acknowledgments"><H3>Acknowledgments</H3></A>

Parts of this work incorporate material taken from 
<A REL=CITATION HREF="http://www.x3.org/tc_home/tc_sd4/x3j13sd4.html">American National Standard X3.226</A>, copyright 1994, and
is used with permission of the
<A HREF="http://www.x3.org/">X3 Secretariat</A>,
ITI, 1250 Eye St., NW., Suite 200, Washington, DC 20005
and of the copyright holder, 
<A HREF="http://www.ansi.org/">American National Standards Institute</A>.
ANSI/X3.226 was developed by
<A HREF="http://www.x3.org/tc_home/x3j13.htm">Technical Committee X3J13</A>,
Common Lisp.<P>

<A NAME="Ordering">Copies of the ANSI/X3.226 standard</A>
may be purchased from the
<A HREF="http://www.ansi.org">American National Standards Institute</A>,
11 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.<P>

<H3>Restricted Rights Legend</H3>

The 
<A REL=TOP HREF="../Front/index.htm">Common Lisp HyperSpec</A>
is subject to the following Restricted Rights Legend:
<BLOCKQUOTE>
``Use, duplication, or disclosure by the 
<A HREF="http://www.whitehouse.gov/">United States Government</A>
is subject to the restrictions set forth in 
(i)   <A REL=CITATION HREF="http://www.gsa.gov/far/">FAR 52.227-14 Alt III</A>,
(ii)  <A REL=CITATION HREF="http://www.gsa.gov/far/">FAR 52.227-19</A>,
(iii) <A REL=CITATION HREF="http://www.dtic.mil/dfars/">DFARS 252.7013(c)(1)(ii)</A>, or
(iv)  the accompanying license Agreement, as applicable.
For purposes of the FAR, the Software shall be deemed to be ``unpublished''
and licensed with disclosure prohibitions, rights reserved under the copyright
laws of the United States.
&nbsp;&nbsp;
<A HREF="http://www.lispworks.com/contact.html">LispWorks Ltd.,
St John's Innovation Centre, Cowley Road,
Cambridge,
CB4 0WS,
England</A>.''
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<A NAME="Disclaimer"><H3>Warranty disclaimer</H3></A>

<B>THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND
NON-INFRINGEMENT.  IN NO EVENT WILL LISPWORKS BE LIABLE FOR DIRECT,
INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES RESULTING FROM
ANY INACCURACY OR ERROR IN THIS DOCUMENT, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE
POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.</B><P>

<A NAME="Caveats"><H3>Additional Disclaimers</H3></A>

Not all notations in that TeX-based document were possible to represent
exactly in 
<A HREF="http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/MarkUp.htm-spec/"
>HTML</A>, although an attempt has been made to be as accurate as possible.
Nevertheless, the process of translation was <I>heuristic</I>, and 
<I>discrepancies might have resulted</I>.
Formally, <A HREF="#Ordering">the official ANSI printed document</A>
is always the definitive reference.<P>

The
<A REL=META HREF="../Front/X3J13Iss.htm">X3J13 issue documents</A>
are <I>not</I> part of the standard and are provided purely for historical
perspective.  It is possible that some of the documents, as included,
   are not the final form that X3J13 voted,
or that some which were voted were omitted,
or that references from these documents into the source text are not complete,
or that some edits prescribed by these documents were incorrectly implemented,
or that other discrepancies exist between these documents and the 
specification.
These documents have <I>no</I> formal weight,
and in all cases, the <A HREF="#Ordering">hardcopy specification</A>
is definitive.

<A NAME="Trademarks"><H3>Trademarks</H3></A>

LispWorks and Liquid Common Lisp are registered trademarks of
<A REV=MADE HREF="http://www.lispworks.com/">LispWorks Ltd.</A><P>

The LispWorks logo and Common Lisp HyperSpec are trademarks of 
<A REV=MADE HREF="http://www.lispworks.com/">LispWorks Ltd.</A><P>

All other brand and product names mentioned herein are trademarks or
registered trademarks of their respective owners.<P>

<HR>

<A NAME="Trivia"><H2>Trivia</H2></A>

The Common Lisp HyperSpec consumes approximately 15MB of disk storage
in about 2300 files.  It contains approximately 110,000 hyperlinks.<P>

<HR>

<A NAME="Bugs"><H2>Bug Reports</H2></A>

Reports of discrepancies between
the <A REL=TOP HREF="../Front/index.htm">Common Lisp HyperSpec</A>
and the hardcopy form may be sent to
<A REV=MADE HREF="mailto:kmp@lispworks.com">Kent Pitman &lt;kmp@lispworks.com&gt;</A>.<P>

Reports of bugs in the specification itself should be addressed to
<A HREF="http://www.x3.org/tc_home/x3j13.htm">subcommittee X3J13</A>.

<HR>

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<A REL=COPYRIGHT HREF="../Front/Help.htm#Legal"><I>Copyright 1996-2005, LispWorks Ltd.  All Rights Reserved.</I></A><P>
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